


Truth

by beyvader



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen, abby and ellie don’t immediately try to kill each other on sight, abby tells ellie the truth, au where abby doesn’t kill joel and lets him go but ellie still comes after her, mentions of joel being critically wounded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25365103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyvader/pseuds/beyvader
Summary: ellie confronts abby before she can find any of her friends. set before abby and lev get to the hospital.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us), Ellie & Abby (The Last of Us), Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	Truth

**Author's Note:**

> my first thought when i finished part ii was why are we pitting two queens against each other LMAO. ok, but in all seriousness, this fic was born out of my incessant thinking that ellie and abby could be good together. i really think these two just need to talk.

Ellie wipes off the streak of blood on her face, and she glowers at Abby, the woman she’s been chasing this whole time. Back in that old chalet, she looked more menacing, more evil even, but now that Ellie looks at her, she seems familiar—not in that she ever knew her, but in that she recognizes her resolve to survive, to get revenge. Ellie shakes away the thought. Relating to her will only weaken her own resolve, and she has to answer for what she’s done. She has to.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Ellie growls, training her pistol on Abby.

Abby reciprocates by pointing her own firearm at her. “You’re that girl…”

“Yeah, I’m _that_ fucking girl,” Ellie snarls.

They’re both silent for a moment, but Abby breaks it, much to Ellie’s surprise. “What do you want from me?” she asks. “We let you go. I let him go.”

“I want answers,” Ellie tells her. “Why the fuck did you come after him?”

Abby scoffs. “You don’t know what he’s done? How do you even ask that?”

Blood running cold, Ellie fears the worst. This is it—the truth, the hidden truth Joel has been keeping from her since the day they finished their journey. She absolutely hates this. It should be him telling her what he’s done, not this girl who tried to kill him. He could die any day, he might already be dead, and the truth she has been longing for is going to come from Abby, his goddamn murderer.

“Tell me,” Ellie says, unintentionally making it sound like a plea.

“You’re her, aren’t you?” Abby asks. “You’re the girl he took.”

“The girl he _took_?” Ellie repeats.

“You’re immune,” Abby rasps out, her voice breaking slightly. “Right?”

Ellie looks down at the chemical burn on her arm, and she tightens her grip on her pistol. She holds back hot tears that threaten to fall from her eyes. This girl knows the truth. Someone she had never seen in her life until they came to kill Joel knows the truth about that fucking day. How does the person who almost killed Joel know, and she doesn’t?

“They were going to put you through a surgery to remove the cordyceps from your brain,” Abby tells her. “My father was the doctor who was going to do it. When Joel came to stop the surgery, he killed my dad. All my dad wanted to do was make a vaccine! And Joel killed him! _That’s_ why I came after him!”

The revelation feels like a bucket of cold water being poured on her back, and Ellie feels dizzy, setting her gun to her side. Tears finally flow, and she presses her hand to her chest as if Abby had knocked the wind out of her. Ellie lowers herself down to whatever she can sit on, and Abby just stands there, huffing with rage.

_Turns out there’s a whole lot more like you, Ellie._

“He told me….he said….he said that there were so many people like me,” Ellie starts.

_Ain’t done a damn bit of good neither._

“He said that it didn’t matter,” Ellie sobs, burying her face in her hands.

“Well, he was right,” Abby deadpans, her own gun at her side now.

Ellie sniffles and looks up at her. “What?”

“The cordyceps are a fungus, a vaccine wouldn’t do shit against fungi,” Abby tells her. “If they had killed you, there would still be no cure.”

The two young women share each others’ gazes for a moment, and Ellie realizes she feels more sadness than rage now. If Joel was in front of her, she’s sure she would lash out, but now she can understand what Abby must be going through. Abby did what she’s doing now—looking to exact revenge, but what does that do for either of them? Sure, Abby would be dead, and she would have paid for what she had done, but what does that do for Joel, who is on the brink of death? What is it going to do for her?

Beside them, the storm rages on, and Abby looms over Ellie. Ellie wonders if she’ll kill her now, but it seems like both of them are too tired. She recalls the horrid scene at the chalet: Joel beaten bloody, the hard press of the guy’s hand on Ellie’s face, the hot tears that streamed down her cheeks, and the dimness of Joel’s eyes as he lost consciousness. When Abby threw the club across the room and led her friends away, Ellie was sure Joel was already dead, but he wasn’t. Abby spared him, and now Ellie can see why. She doesn’t want to be like him—selfish and willing to kill for her own benefit.

“He lied to you,” Abby muses. “You really didn’t know?”

“Does it look like I fucking knew?” Ellie snaps.

“Jesus.” Abby shakes her head and sighs. “Sorry to break it to you, but he’s a piece of shit. He may have not stopped a cure from being made, but he did kill my dad.”

“And your dad was okay with killing me!” Ellie retorts. “I got knocked unconscious, and no one asked me if I was okay with dying, just like Joel didn’t ask me how I felt. The Fireflies and your dad were okay with killing a fourteen year old kid, and there still wouldn’t have been a cure.”

Abby pauses before she says, “I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I wanted to kill you,” Ellie says. “But I think I got something else completely.” 

She stands and wipes away her tears, standing in silence for a minute. Abby doesn’t leave, much to her surprise. Ellie looks at her again, and she really recognizes her resolve now. Maybe if she had met her back in Salt Lake, maybe they would have been friends. How could she resent her for doing exactly what she’s doing now?

“Your people took my friend,” Ellie tells Abby. “Tell me where she is, and I’ll let you leave.”

Abby actually laughs at that. 

“Something fucking funny?” Ellie asks.

“If they’ve got her, you’ll never make it to her,” Abby replies. “You’ll die before you even make it to them. They’re on pretty high alert.”

Ellie squints at her. “Why aren’t you with them?”

“Let’s just say, I’ve got my own shit with the WLF,” Abby tells her. She looks back up to the floor where Lev is waiting for her, and she looks back at Ellie. “Listen, I need to get that hospital. If they’re holding your friend anywhere, it might be there. It’s the closest place. You help me get there, I’ll help you get your friend.”

Maybe if the world wasn’t infested with clickers, stalkers, shamblers, and all those other monsters, Ellie might have said no, but the world they live in is merciless, and sometimes, people have to make decisions they don’t like to live.

“Safety in numbers, right?” Abby says.

_ We can help each other. _

_ Ellie. _

_ Safety in numbers and all that! _

“You’ve got that kid with you, huh?” Ellie asks.

_ Yeah, I thought you were one of them, too. Then I saw you.  _

_ If you haven’t noticed, they don’t keep kids around.  _

Abby seems to freeze, but she regains her composure quickly. “Yeah, his sister needs surgery on her arm. I need supplies from the hospital so it can get done.”

“If they’re after you, won’t they kill you the second you get to the hospital?”

“Something we’ve got in common, I guess,” Abby responds. 

They stare at each other for a moment, then Ellie nods. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> i looked back on a lot of part i for this fic, and also specifically the sequence where abby is saved by joel and tommy. abby tells mel to tourniquet joel’s leg after she shot him, and that really made me want to write a different outcome: one where abby does hurt joel bad, but she stops because of how familiar ellie’s cries for mercy are. 
> 
> also the vaccine not working on fungi is an actual thing, and it kind of annoys me naughty dog never really addressed it in the game. there’s always part iii, but idk just something i’ve been thinking about. 
> 
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208708/
> 
> thanks for reading! constructive criticism absolutely welcome.


End file.
